Giclee (jee clay) fine art prints are produced by computerized ink jet printers that spray tiny bursts of pigment onto the paper or canvas at random, almost like an airbrush. The major manufacturer of the ink jet printers is Iris Graphics of Bedford, Massachusetts, hence the common name of Iris Print. The original artwork is scanned into the computer and stored in a digital file. Computer software is then used to blend and convert the colors into a readable format for the computer. Then the proofing process begins and the artist chooses the final proof. During the actual printing phase, four nozzles each spray a million micro droplets per second onto the fine art paper, which is rotating at 250 inches per second. Each droplet is four times smaller than a human hair, which produces an extremely realistic reproduction of the original without any loss of color or clarity.
